The Banff Centre is currently accepting applications to a number of its 2010 and 2011 visual arts Thematic Residencies:

Beyond Former Heaven (or the Institute of Surrealist Ethnography) with Olivia Plender
Program dates: July 5 - August 13, 2010, Application deadline: March 5, 2010
This residency will encourage participants to work, live, play, and think collaboratively and is based on the view that experimentation should not simply be confined to the safe space of art practice but can also change our social relations. The main focus of activity will be to open up the idea of what research can be, approaching it as a performative act in itself.

The distance between our minds and thoughts equals the distance between our words and mouths with Jan Verwoert
Program dates: September 13 - October 29, 2010, Application deadline: May 14, 2010
This residency is about acts, ideas, and emotions that constitute community in a different manner, through enacted difference, through the motion of standing apart together.

Revolution 2012 with Adrian Stimson
Program dates: January 5 - February 22, 2011, Application deadline: August 31, 2010
First Nations, Métis, and Inuit artists will conduct critical and reflective research. Discussions will inform and create a basis for the investigation of ancient ideas and contemporary artistic process.

What's Love Got To Do With It? with Ashley Neese
Program dates: January 5 - February 22, 2011, Application deadline: August 31, 2010
This is a residency dedicated to the investigation, critique, and cultivation of love in contemporary art. Through a variety of group activities and individual creative projects, participants will reflect on what it means to love, and how artists can express love in effective ways.